


Kiss

by f0rever15elf



Series: 2020 December Writing Challenge [29]
Category: Prospect (2018)
Genre: Angst, Food mention, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Pedro Pascal - Freeform, mention of amputation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29035674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f0rever15elf/pseuds/f0rever15elf
Summary: Ezra has been gone for a long time, out on the Green Moon to try and make is fortune for you both. Tonight, he finally comes home.
Relationships: Ezra (Prospect 2018)/Reader, Ezra (Prospect 2018)/You
Series: 2020 December Writing Challenge [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2127273
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Kiss

He’s been gone for so long this time. So much longer than he had promised you he would be. Contact with him had fallen off over a cycle ago, and the very real possibility that he could be dead on that accursed moon and you would never know what happened to him keeps you up at night. You can’t remember the last time you got a good night’s sleep, and you wear the signs of it outwardly. Your posture is hunched, your eyes sunken. It seems like every night you jolt awake, the cry of his name on your lips.

 _Ezra_.

You’ve been with the prospector for years now, making due around the home with your job at the local market while he travels off world in search of riches and renown. All to give you the life he says you deserve, all while refusing to accept your answer that all you need or want is him in your arms. He’s always been so stubborn. 

When he came to you that fateful night cycles ago, your heart very nearly stopped in your chest when the name of the Green Moon fell from his lips. You were well aware of the moon that promised riches. But you knew behind the glamor hid a dark and deadly truth. It was poisonous, dangerous. Not to mention harvesting the crystal there could be fatal if even the slightest nuance went wrong. And that’s not even taking into consideration the cruelty man was capable of under the spells of desperation and greed. You begged and pleaded for him not to go, but his heart and mind had been set as he kissed you goodbye, promising to stay in touch and that he would be home before you even had time to miss him.

And yet, here you are. Three cycles later and your home cold and empty, bereft of the warmth his drawl brings as he waxes poetic about his latest interests. You miss him terribly, your heart aches in such a painful way that you think the pain might never go away as every holiday you spend alone, longing for him.

This year will be more of the same. Spent alone, staring into the fire as you try to imagine the way Ezra’s arms feel around you as you doze peacefully against him. A desperate prayer sent to whatever supreme being exists that one day you’ll get to see him again, hold him in your arms and never let him go. Until then, every day is just more and more of the same.

Snow blankets the ground as the most dreaded holiday steadily approaches. Ezra’s favorite holiday. The houses all around you shimmer with lights to celebrate, but yours remains dark. The lights were Ezra’s favorite part of this holiday; he always found joy in such little beauties like the sparkling and twinkling bulbs.

The first cycle he had been gone, you had decorated as normal, on the off chance that he would return in time to see them. The second cycle, you had put up fewer, the exhaustion of his absence wearing on you. This year, you couldn’t even bring yourself to pull down the boxes of decorations from the attic.

When the day finally arrives, you find yourself in the same place as every night you have off of work; curled up on the couch buried in every plush blanket you own in an attempt to feel some sort of safety or comfort. Your heart aches in your chest, a hole carved that you know only Ezra’s return could ever fill.

_Ezra._

The tears brim in your eyes as the ache of loneliness and loss wracks your body. You cover your mouth, choking on your sobs as you attempt to quiet them. Kevva, you miss him so much, and you would give anything to get him back.

“Please,” you whimper to no one in particular. The universe perhaps. “Please just give him back.”

As if in answer, there’s a knock at your door. You ignore it initially, content rather to sit and wallow in your own agony. When there’s a second knock, this far more insistent, you stand with a sigh, trying your best to calm yourself enough to look presentable to whoever decided this an appropriate day to come knocking at your door. With squared shoulders, you cross your home, your hand hovering above the doorknob as you hesitate. When the third knock comes, you wrench the door open, poised to read the riot act to whomever so had the audacity to bother you at this hour on this day.

But then you see him and freeze.

He looks… miserable. Forlorn, bordering on feral, his clothes dirty and ill-fitting on his now much thinner form. His hair matches his patchy beard, a scraggly mess, but that beautiful blonde tuft just above his brow still catches the moonlight, shining silver. He’s… he’s real. He’s real and he’s here on your doorstep. After three miserable cycles, he’s finally home.

“Hello there, little gem,” he rasps, his voice thick with so many emotions. Tears spring to your eyes at the sound of the voice you’ve longed to hear for so long, and you reach for him with trembling hands.

“Ezra.” There’s a trembling in your voice that matches your hands as you reach for his face, laying them gently on his cheeks.

“I’m home.” It’s barely above a whisper, as if he himself can’t even believe it. “I… I, erm, lost my key on the Green. I lost so much there, gem. I’m… I’m not the same man who said goodbye all that time ago.” The lack of the typical luster in his eyes, the hunch of his shoulders tells you as much, and suddenly you can’t get him inside fast enough, fearful that you might lose him again if you let him linger on the doorstep.

“All that matters is that you’re home, Ez.” You close the door behind you, locking out the horrors that he faced. This is a safe place, and you’re determined to keep it that way.

“I’ll admit, there is a certain fear that runs in my veins at the moment.” You turn to him at that, brow furrowed as he stands in the living room, looking like a stranger in his own home.

“You have nothing to be scared of here, Ezra. It’s just you and me….” As you make your way back to him, he seems to close in further on himself, turning his right side away from you, almost as if he’s hiding from you. “Ez, please talk to me, what’s going on? What happened that makes you want to hide from me?”

“I lost parts of myself on the moon, gem. In…more ways than one. Not just emotionally, but physically as well….” His eyes don’t find yours, cast down in shame. “I’m not the same man you fell in love with.”

“Ezra, you’ve been gone so long, it’s alright, we’ll be okay, but I need to know what you mean.” You take another step forward, reaching out for him. “Show me…,” you plead softly, desperately. Your tone draws his gaze, tears shining in his own eyes and your heart breaks for him.

“I sustained a wound in my arm and it festered. I botched the surgery to remove the decay…. My… _partner…_ had to remove the limb.” Slowly, he turns to face you squarely, your eyes trailing down to his right side. How had you not noticed before? The sleeve of his coat hangs empty and your lips part in disbelief before you look back up to him. “The moon takes as much as she gives, little gem. We defiled her lush forests in our search for greatness, and she took the pay she deemed necessary for repentance.”

You say nothing for a time, standing in front of him as you watch his face. Eventually, you break the silence as you reach to cup his cheeks once more. “Ezra, you are no less the man I said goodbye to three cycles ago, and you are certainly no less the man I fell in love with. Arm or no arm…, you are still my Ezra, my love.” The tears brim over in his eyes, spilling down over his cheeks and you quickly wipe them away with the pads of your thumbs. “I will always want you. I will always love you, and whatever else it is that haunts you from your time away from me, we will work through hand in hand.”

You tilt your face up at him, searching for any sign that he hears you, truly hears you, as he trembles in your hold. “I-I believe you,” he whimpers, leaning in close to you to the point where you can feel his breath ghosting across your skin. At that, you can’t resist anymore, pulling him down to meld your lips with his.

The first kiss in three cycles. The first brush of tenderness Ezra has had in three cycles. The love and longing and desire all burn through, washing over both of you like a tidal wave as he brings his remaining arm around your waist, your own wrapping around his shoulders as you both sink to the ground, lost in the feel and taste of one another. He tastes just as you remember as his chapped lips move against your own, and the pain of the time spent without him melts steadily away as he relaxes into you before the fire. He is home, and whatever challenges may come after this tender moment, the two of you will face them together. 


End file.
